If there was a previous transport secretary that the incumbent, Grant Shapps, might hope not to imitate, it would surely be his notoriously calamity-stricken predecessor Chris Grayling.
But just a few months after his return to the cabinet after several years out in the cold, Shapps appears to have followed Grayling’s example rather too closely – lifting sections of his speech to the House of Commons on the collapse of Thomas Cook from Grayling’s equivalent statement when Monarch Airlines went bust in 2017.
At the beginning of his statement, Shapps appears to have followed Grayling’s text almost to the letter, simply substituting Thomas Cook for Monarch and adjusting numbers.
“With your permission, I would like to make a statement about the steps the government have been taking to support those affected by the collapse of Monarch Airlines Thomas Cook, in particular the 110,000 150,000 passengers left abroad without a flight back to the UK and the almost 2,000 9,000 people who have lost their jobs.”
At times, Shapps ad-libbed. But at other times, the exact wording was only changed by an acronym: “Normally, the CAA’s responsibility for bringing passengers back would extend only to customers whose trips are covered by Atol the air travel organisers’ licence scheme.”
Luckily, most details – even the page views on the CAA’s website – were more or less the same. Shapps said, as did Grayling: “There have been more than 20039,000 calls to our customer service centres, There have been more than 1 2 million unique visitors to a dedicated website— http://monarch.thomascook.caa.co.uk— with over and 7 million page views.”
But some of the lifted sections were more than merely technical. Shapps’s people, like Grayling’s, had “been in contact with members whose constituencies have been hardest hit by these job losses. They have our assurance that we will work with them and the industry to offer what support we can.”
Both said “efforts are rightly focused on” getting people into new jobs and getting passengers home. And Shapps, like Grayling, said: “I have been hugely impressed.”
Both expressed their heartfelt response to the situation, adding: “Despite those robust plans … this is an incredibly distressing situation is hugely distressing for all concerned.”
Reflecting on Thomas Cook’s history, Shapps also used Grayling’s text as a starting point: “The loss of an iconic major British brand that was close to celebrating its half-century with a 178-year history is a really sad moment. However, it should not be seen as a reflection on the general health of the UK aviation sector, which continues to thrive.”
As Grayling put it, word for word, Shapps also said: “We have never had the collapse of an airline or holiday company on this scale before, and we have responded swiftly and decisively.”
For a finale, he pledged to do in weeks what Grayling said would take months: “We need to look at all the options – not just Atol, but whether it is possible to enable airlines to wind down in a an more orderly manner.”
With a final flourish, Shapps said: “Our effort will turn to working through any the reforms necessary to ensure that passengers do not find themselves in this position ridiculous situation again.”
The apparent lifting of Grayling’s text is not the first time Shapps, who was sacked from the cabinet in 2015, has found himself in an awkward position.
In 2015, he was forced to admit that he had “over-firmly denied” having a second job under a pseudonym selling a “get-rich-quick” scheme while sitting as an MP.
After he left the cabinet he stood down as a minister amid allegations that he had ignored repeated bullying allegations against a party youth organiser.
Shapps responded on Twitter: “Although I wasn’t aware that some of these words had been used before, the message in my statement stands true and I will follow through by delivering airline administration reform!”
